Brothertalk

 
 
Lyrics and Music Copyright Ted A. Thompson

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My brother from the city came to see me yesterday,
He said the smog was bad,
And his wife was mad,

And he had to get away
for a day, or so...

We sat and talked for an hour or so,
With a bottle of wine between us,
About things we did, and times ago,
When nobody could have seen us...

Simple things. Good times. Brother talk.

Then my brother sighed, and he looked in my eyes,
He looked kinda sad, and I didn't know why,
The wine in the bottle by now was nearly gone.

He said, "What you do is what you are,
And city life's let me down so far,
And brother, I don't know what went wrong.

My wife and I get along alright,
But the stress of the day comes out at night,
And oh, this job is gettin to me.

We were flower children, sang our song,
I thought it'd last our whole lives long,
Now we're stuck in the city like cats up in a tree.

Tell me now, when did we switch lanes?
You and I had the same, now one of us changed,
And if I look kinda lost, it's because I know it's me.

 
It's me...
City life.
The high cost...
Of consumption."
 

I said,
"You know my brother,
We know each other,
And there ain't no love like the love between us two.

All these years gone by
We've seen eye to eye,
We just each had us a different point of view."
And I told my brother, "Look, here's what you do..."

 
And I told him.
And I showed him
A few simple things.
 

"When a chigger bug bites, it means no harm,
Feels good to scratch with the other arm,
It's how you look at things tells what you do.

A berry's worth the pickin, see,
Cuz the brambles that are stickin me,
Don't hurt so much with a taste of the wine I brew.

It's such sweet joy to be alive,
The honey drippin' from the hive,
Is eas'ly worth a measly sting or two.

You see that water, runnin' clear?
It came from a spring and found it's way here,
And it flows through our lives,
And it don't care a thing about time.

And that mountain standin' overhead,
Been there forever, and after I'm dead,
So I can't ever own it, but lovin' it makes it mine.
For a time.

Winter goes when spring arrives,
A new crop grows where the old one dies,
To live by his hands and his heart makes any man wise,
In my eyes.

And when the world don't look so bright,
Remember the moon was made for the night,
And the darkness flies
From the starlight in our eyes.
In our eyes...

You see, the river lives. The wind sings. The mountain talks."

My brother bought a farm today,
It's down the creek, about a mile away,
And the walk is nice in the fog of an early morn.

We'll have a path between our houses, then,
We'll never walk alone again,
And my brother and I...

 

We'll shoot the breeze
Through the leaves of the yellow corn.
Simple things. Good times. Brother talk.